What Matters Most: A Plea for Focus

It's hard to imagine our profession becoming more complex or demanding and yet, as I write the September Ellin's Corner, another school year has begun with more burdens and distractions for teachers - more demands that steal time away from planning for and teaching children.

Friend and colleague, Bruce Morgan, and I had a conversation recently about his return to teaching full time after two years as a Reading Specialist. He laughingly told me his "in box." was two inches thick with documents requiring immediate attention. It included a treatise on the four pillars of a professional learning community, a list of the assessment processes he is required to administer this year, a request for him to write his ideas for the school's vision and mission (by next morning), a checklist to be completed on every child requiring him ... And the list went on and on. Toward the bottom of the pile was a form he was to complete outlining his professional goals for the year. When, exactly, is Bruce or any teacher to focus on his professional learning and its effect on student learning? Would that be before or after completing the student profiles, sitting on the hospitality committee, reading the article on new thinking in math pedagogy and conducting 25 parent "goal setting" conferences?

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